Christian Dailly insists his close view of the problems that have plagued West Ham United's season means that there is no question of him, or any of those around him in the Scotland side, treating the challenge posed by Georgia at Hampden tomorrow lightly.

With 68 caps, Dailly is the most experienced member of Alex McLeish's squad and someone whom younger members of the party would naturally turn to for advice. The defender's troubles at club level this season have given him extra incentive to ensure that no complacency is shown by the Scots - now sitting at an elevated No16 in the Fifa world rankings - against a team 69 places below them.

Scotland are the early leaders of Group B and Georgia have lost their past three qualifying games, meaning many people view Scotland's match in Italy on Wednesday as a more important proposition than tomorrow. Dailly disagrees.

"The Italy game will look after itself," he said. "This is our cup final. It's massive and the whole focus is on Georgia; nobody is even bothering about Italy just now. We've put ourselves in a decent position. We are aware that if we win the game we have 12 out of 15 points, which is a great position, but if we lose it then things become an awful lot tougher."

Though reluctant openly to criticise his team-mates at Upton Park, Dailly also provided tacit admission that a lack of a suitable work ethic among younger players is responsible for the predicament West Ham find themselves in.

"We [Scotland] have got ourselves in a strong position. The team is doing well up until now but you can never rest on anything," he said. "There is no doubt some boys at West Ham took their foot off the gas this season and we have ended up in trouble. It's the same with Scotland: if you think you are great then you will get kicked in the teeth, but we don't have boys in the team who think that way."

Dailly, a fervent supporter of the Scotland side and someone who concedes he "could never imagine" not playing for his country, is one of only three players in the current squad who featured the last time Scotland made it to a major tournament - the World Cup finals in 1998.

"I didn't imagine there would be such a gap between finals," he said. "And it gets tougher as well. There are more teams now capable of qualifying; it's harder than ever to qualify now."

Everton's Gary Naysmith has spoken out in support of the former - and widely castigated - Scotland manager Berti Vogts. Naysmith featured throughout the German's troubled tenure and claims that Vogts was not given the respect he deserved by many pundits. "Things never went the way we wanted then but, whatever you say about Berti, it is because of him that a lot of the players in the team now are playing for us," said Naysmith.

Whereas Scotland are surprise leaders of Group B, Georgia are placed sixth of seven teams, the others above them being France, Italy, Ukraine and Lithuania. Only the Faroe Islands lie below them. The Scots hope it stays that way tomorrow.